Radiation Simulation

After the long drive to the cancer treatment center, Wally was in too much pain to lay still for the radiation simulation. They could not do it. The radiation oncologist was dismayed by this: if he cannot lay still for the simulation, he may not be able to lay still for the treatments, either. Quite a conundrum.

We explained to the doctor that the commute was the primary cause of Wally's pain, that sitting up hurts, and tha the bumpy ride makes it worse. He is only comfortable laying on his right side.

We asked how long and how many treatments Wally would need. He said that a course of 10 treatments, 1 per day, was standard for this kind of situation. We told him that this was unacceptable: there is no way that Wally could tolerate 20 trips to and from treatment. The doctor said that they could compress that to 2 treatments per day, over 5 days, instead.

While a better solution, it still meant 10 painful trips for Wally. I asked if he could be admitted to the hospital for a week, instead, to get the treatments. The radiation oncologist said no, he cannot admit Wally, because the radiation treatments are considered "outpatient".

But he did suggest that we see if Wally could be admitted for "pain management". He could see just how miserable Wally was, and we had told him about how miserable he was at home, too. The prescription pain-killers given to Wally are simply inadequate. We told him how much better Wally was doing at Research Belton, where they were able to give him intravenous pain medications (and fluids), instead. The doctor agreed that we would be justified to admit him under those conditions, and that he would call the ER doctor right away.

We wheeled Wally down to the ER, where they ran some additional tests. They concurred that the hospital could do a better job of pain management, so they admitted him. They also said that this was pending further testing, and the results of the biopsy -- without that, we still don't have an "official" diagnosis of cancer.

So now Wally is resting comfortably in Room 404 at Menorah Medical Center, which is the home of the cancer treatment center, too. Now we're just waiting for the biopsy results...